Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
We have a son who is newly diagnosed with ASD and we are looking into things that we can do to proactively support him and help him manage his autism in a way that he can accept, without feeling disabled by it. Hoping to tap into ideas for therapies and interventions that have worked for other people, or something they wished they had tried or were offered when they were younger.
As a family we have a positive attitude to the diagnosis. His main difficulties are around anxiety and emotional well-being - he struggles with emotional literacy and reading the emotional tone of other people. He is also very literal and struggles to maintain an internal monologue, which means he often vocalises at inappropriate times. Add into this, difficulties in concentration.
This is a bit of a learning curve for us and we are open to ideas.
Gaining an understanding is a long process really, it would be useful to create notes on the seven areas and then identify what you can:-
Touch
Taste
Sound
Smell
Sight
Balance
Space
I have a very useful presentation from the NAS show 2019 from Bethany Edwards about this which opened my eyes to areas I did not think about. I am recognised as being High Functioning Autism not yet diagnosed but showing many traits/behaviours to confirm that in light of others experienced with Neuro diverse people.
Neuro Tribes by Steve Silberman is also a good read as well as his TED Talk.